So let me see. Congress can't pass a budget. That is their most basic responsibility, and they fail at it. They have failed at it, repeatedly, for the last decade.

So they have been running on continuing resolutions. But now they can't even pass that. (In fairness, they have failed before, which is the other times the government shut down.)

Congress is broken. If you wonder why the president rules more and more by executive order, this is why - because Congress doesn't do its job. This garbage is enabling - even requiring - the president to take on more and more authority.

As a libertarian this shutdown has me feeling extremely vindicated. Have we seen chaos? No - we've seen prosperity. The fundamental truth of the NAP has held strong. Keep it shutdown.

I think you're saying that so long as the time-critical work is done by unpaid workers and the rest waits for three weeks, the shutdown has no bad consequences. Makes sense. But do you have any insight into what happens if the unpaid workers leave and find paid work instead, or if the waiting work eventually becomes urgent?